St. Clair Restaurant

When to St. Clair this morning for breakfast for the first time. My experience was not what I expected due the fact they have a grade A on the the door. I notice two white men walked in after I was seated and the waitress acknowledged us and still when to take the white guys order first. This unacceptable in Brooklyn or any where very appalling. I was so upset got up and walked out.

Great breakfast at a reasonable price and wonderful service. Don’t pass up this place because it is not chic/​cute looking.

The rudest, most arrogant manager of a diner ever. After having several problems ordering from this restaurant through Seamless Web I asked to speak to the manager. Rather than listening to and considering my feedback as valuable he went on a rant about how many customers they serve and if I don’t like it — go somewhere else. He then promptly hung up on me. I have seriously ever been treated so rudely. I will never patron this restaurant again and will spread the word that if you don’t mind being abused should you have a complaint — feel free to patron this place.

Whenever I am craving diner food I find myself looking for an alternative option to St. Clair’s because of their prices and always end up regretting it. Shelling out the extra cash for diner food done right is definitely worth it. No, its not gourmet, but my over easy eggs are actually over easy and my burger is always cooked right. Their food is predictable and commonplace, but sometimes that’s exactly what you want, right?
I think its the best diner option for the Carroll Gardens area, and their delivery is pretty fast and efficient

Alright folks, I don’t understand all the «why go here when there are so many better options in the area» comments, when this place is a diner. I almost didn’t go after reading several reviews even though I’m currently house-​sitting a block away. In the end I went, and I’m glad I did!
I was (and still am a little) hungover from last night. I was also going to be dining solo. For these two reasons I was most certainly NOT ready to wait in a line, or be seated in a tiny spot where I would be encouraged to leave as quickly as possible because others are waiting for my spot. I figured that even with the so-​so reviews the New (!) St. Clair would fit my needs.
It did! The few counter seats were taken so they gave me a table to myself. Menu & water along with order-​taking came quickly. The coffee took just a tad longer than I’d like, but how were they supposed to know that at 1pm I was dying for my first cup of the day? Besides, thankfully, when it did arrive it was in a nice deep cup as opposed to those old-​school shallow jobs.
Corned Beef Hash & Scrambled Eggs, with cheese on the eggs thank you very much. It arrived and was generous; they must’ve dumped a whole can of hash on the grill. Again, I’m not expecting house-​made red flannel hash at a diner, so it was perfect. And in addition, the cheese was melted on the eggs (you have NO IDEA how many places forget, and then you have to watch them place your cooked plate under a broiler again).
Here comes my 1 star that’s missing: the potatoes are as bad as everyone says they are. In hindsight I maybe should’ve removed 2 stars for the «Home Fries», but since I was prepared ahead of time and everything else hit the spot I’ll stick with it.
Huge, white, almost-​pasty-​from-​not-​being-​cooked-​nearly-​enough, potatoes. Here and there within this assemblage there was a raw onion piece to shock you awake, and bizarrely a single green pepper slice. One piece was literally almost half a potato cut lengthwise! Hopefully they read their Unilocal reviews (I’m sure they do not) and will address the potato issue. It is quite an issue believe me.
So go forth, oh Hungover One, and order confidently of the various egg dishes. Be forewarned about the horrors of the Home Fry debacle and maybe expand your mind to ask for french fries or hash browns instead, and you shouldn’t be disappointed.

Standard Brooklyn diner. Hey, it’s a diner.

Due to the time change last night, my friend and I were up and at ‘em much earlier than expected… therefor we had to forgo the usual Brooklyn brunch experience (as it was not yet 11) for this diner.
I was happy to have a reason to try out St. Clair’s. I am all for a place where I can get breakfast at any time or day of the week.
So, it really pains me to tell you that not only is this place mediocre in the preparation of their breakfast foods, but it is also wildly overpriced :-(
1 coffee
1 orange juice
1 stack of plain jane pancakes,
1 side of «home fries»
= $ 16.
The juice is terribly overpriced in my opinion and the home fries were just awful. Seriously, someone pushed around smashed up pieces of potato and onions in a frying pan for about 30 seconds and called it a day. The pancakes were decent but nothing to write home about.
I suggest taking a walk about another 10 minutes down the street to Robin Des Bois.
OR, if you want out of this world ricotta pancakes, make the trip up to Bushwick and go to Roberta’s.

St. Clair diner sits cheerily on the busy corner of Smith & Atlantic, and eerily in the shadow of the austere Brooklyn Correction Complex. While enjoying lunch on this beautiful October day with all the doors open and the warm breeze wafting through, I thought about the inmates across the street and kinda felt a little sad. (I must be watching too much Lockup.) Anyway, I enjoyed my veggie frittata – broccoli, cauliflower, whole delicate baby carrots and zucchini. The service was excellent, the place was clean, the prices were reasonable, and the coffee was drinkable. I will surely be back when I’m in the area.

I rather like this diner, especially when you just want to get out of the apartment for a bit late in the evening for a cup of coffee and realize everything else in the neighborhood is closed. This place also closes (at midnight I think), but is a much better deal than some of the late night restaurants in the area especially if all you’re looking for is a place to linger over a cup of coffee.

Orange and lively, this place is fun — and great for those slow-​to-​sober-​up Sunday mornings. The menu is vast (to almost a disconcerting level, you’ll see) and it may take you some time to figure out what you want.
Everything I’ve had, I’ve liked. Not loved. (It’s a diner, after all.) But I really do LIKE the food. The coffee is better than expected, as is the service.
Comfy booth seating also contributes to that vibe of being in one of those diners that you see in a movie. Big, bright, clean — a fresh change of pace for Atlantic Ave. Check it out.

The place is not a hard place to fine but… Brrrrrr…the place was so frigid that it made me wake up instantly without an ounce of coffee (whoa).
I tried the omelette with Italian sausage, peppers and mozzarella. At that first bite moment, I realized that I do not like omelettes OR mozzarella. It wasn’t the best breakfast had to date — wished I opted for something lighter like wheat toast… that’s it!
The staff were cool but this place missed the simple omelette mark… You’ll have to drag me here with a winter coat to get me to come back.

Ever since they redid the place I loved it even more. Food was always great with the largest portions for cheapest price.
I had dinner there with someone. Burger with fries, coleslaw hot chocolate, soup all came up to $ 18! That’s incredible, especially for the area. Apollo Diner is up the block but they are no competition for St. Clair and their new chef and new make over.
Brooklyn Tabernacle church members fill up this diner on sundays so beware thats the busiest day for such a huge church with 2,000+ people per their three services. Week nights are better.

Was staying at the NU Hotel down the block and stumbled here New Years day with a tremendous hangover/​still drunk. I got the brunch special, which as amazing I had all types of juice and a Mimosa (which are my fave) made with REAL FRESH SQUEEZED ORANGE JUICE!!! This mimosa was one of the best I have ever had.
We came in a large group, and they are not prepared to handle such a group, but they made a table for us. The service wasn’t the best, but hey it was the day after NYE… No one can be moving at full speed and we all understand that.
I had the Monte Cristo, french toast with turkey and ham smothered in melted swiss cheese, it was absolutely to DIE for. Hit the spot and cured my hangover, well maybe that was the Mimosa, hair of the dog.
My friend ordered the Eggs Ben, which is my usual standby and it was legit one of the best… a rival of D.C.‘s Open City (which says tons, since it’s my fave brunch spot in the District).
If you are ever in Brooklyn, go on and check out this little diner! I know you will walk away completely satisfied!

Decent — I had the 3 egg platter for around $ 8 – 9 which included the eggs, potatoes, bacon, toast, a sausage and large but thin slices of ham. I don’t normally eat that much food for brekkies, but this was lunch and I was in the mood for protein. I see others have pinged them for different fare, which might be legit, but I can only base my rating on my very basic meal, which would be hard to screw up.

In a bit of a rush, we couldn’t wait for a table at one of the better brunch options to open up. Predictably, there were many available tables at St. Clair, and we sat down immediately. (I chose the seat facing the TV so I could rudely ignore everything everyone said as I checked the football scores and watched the Jets win.)
We weren’t expecting food miracles, and we didn’t get them.
They make a decent diner burger,* and it’s absolutely worth paying an extra dollar or two to get waffle fries instead of the regular steak fries. (I’m convinced diners knowingly make such awful steak fries to scam you out of that extra money.)
The order of chicken fingers turned out to be absolutely massive, and exactly what you want them to be. Fried, juicy, and served with good honey mustard.
The veggie burger is more veggie than I’m accustomed to, which could be good or bad, depending on your taste. It actually tasted like broccoli.
Basically, if you’ve ever been to another diner, you’ve already been here. It’s boring and predictable, but sometimes you’re in the mood for it. I’ve probably walked by this place 75 times. I’d never been in until Sunday, and I’ll probably never go back. Not to say that it’s bad, it’s just a question of location; it’s a boring diner island in an archipelago of interesting restaurants.
And since it isn’t even open ²⁴⁄₇ (closes at midnight), I can’t see a particular reason to return. But you never know.
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*Meaning that even if you order it raw, it will never be cooked anything but medium well to well. And you know what? You’re probably better off.

I had been going there since they remodeled. They’re pricier than a typical diner, but hey, the food is good, so why not?
Well that changed recently. The food is mediocre at best. I ordered a lamb souvlaki that came with Greek salad. The salad was great, but the meat didn’t taste right. The other half ordered the Lumberjack and had to ask for butter and syrup three times.
Skip this place and save your money, there are a lot better places in the neigborhood.

3.5 stars…
The food and atmosphere is a bit better than any of the other diners in a 20 block radius it’s just the prices that are keeping the rating down. A full breakfast here will be between $ 9 – 12, a bit too steep for typical diner fare and more in line with a nicer artisan breakfast spot or a fancier brunch place.
The New Saint Claires is a nice clean spot with ultra comfortable chairs/​booths and a huge menu. The food is about standard, nothing to go out of your way for. If you’re in the area you don’t mind spending 20% more for the approximately the same food you’d get somewhere with slightly worse service or a slightly more cramped space then Saint Claires is your kind of spot.

I am able to get delivery from Carroll Gardens Diner, or their offshoot right on Atlantic and Smith, this little ditty called St. Claire’s. With much of the same menu, at least the basics, and a friendly host, I order takeout from here when I’m not in the mood for any particular Asian cuisines.
Unfortunately unlike their sister diner they are open to midnight each night rather than ²⁴⁄₇. But at least they have waffle fries, and their salads and burgers are pretty damn good. Ditto for the breakfast food if I’m in the mood for an omelette.
One small thing, but I actually dislike their pickles for some reason (they are younger pickles, I can’t remember the term for it).
Prices could always be lower, but it’s not too exorbitant and it’s the only diner food fairly close to me with the exception of Celeste Diner which I haven’t tried yet.

Arthur O. and I came upon this establishment after some fruitless searching for a place only characterized as the «Dominicans» for some post-​boozing (or mid-​boozing break for me) food action.
We were a bit disappointed in not finding the Dominicans — both unemployed, we were savoring the thought of cheap yet plentiful Latin American comfort food.
In addition to feeling a bit disappointed, I began to feel an indistinct urgency, a foreboding that things would get worse. After wandering up and down Smith Street, I could sense a growing discomfort coming from my companion, an annoyed antsy-​ness mixed with impatience, the beginnings of belligerence caused not so much by alcohol but by hunger pains. As Arthur’s overall temperament is sometimes dependent on the mood of his stomach, I made an executive decision to risk an unsatisfied appetite from a poor culinary decision in order to ward off the potential danger of an empty belly.
So I pulled him into the first diner we saw, after a brief glance at the menu outside. St. Clair’s Restaurant is one of those old-​time diners, but it had been recently renovated with a space-​age Jetsons look. However, the food was the same old diner food.
At first I thought my gambit had backfired as signs of my companion’s grumpiness threatened to escalate after his less than pleasant trip to the bathroom which resulted in a wait and then the unpleasant after-​effects of the previous occupant’s activities.
Fortunately, St. Clair came to the rescue with an unexpected plate of appetizers — pickles and coleslaw — that was surprisingly tasty (though a bit salty afterwards), which seemed to defuse a potential disaster of a situation.
But that did not mean that the rest of the dining experience went well. The food was at best average. I ordered the burger, which was mediocre, but large. It did not come with fries though, which was a bit annoying, but it was plenty to fill my empty stomach (and only $ 5.45). Arthur ordered the Ruby Reuben, which was also large, but was not that great in the end.
In the end, St. Clair staved off the complete implosion of a night out, but did so only by delaying and distracting instead of actually turning things around. But hey, that’s just one man’s opinion, in a trying situation. Other diners seemed to enjoy their dining experiences. A table next to ours seemed to be feasting on a top Zagat rated meal, complete with white wine (wrapped in a white towel), picking at their steak or pasta with shiny utensils, which they held in a delicate manner, pinkys held aloft.

This is my spot. It reminds me so much of my grandmothers kitchen in Lindenhurst that I almost got choked up the first time I went in. Yea its kinda tacky with the wood paneling and stained glass light fixtures but i love it!
The food isn’t anything to write home about but the service is great. Gotta love the stereotypical diner waitresses. The prices are excellent as well. Saint Claire is more about the atmosphere than the food as far as I’m concerned. Its warm and homey and I like it!